Park named for the late, longtime elected leader Michele McQuigg

The long-serving Michele McQiugg will now have a park and trailhead named for her at the corner of Old Bridge Road and Oakwood Drive in Lake Ridge.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors named the 15-acre park after the public servant who, for 25 years, served as the Occoquan District Supervisors from 1992 to 1997, in the House of Delegates from 1997 to 2007, and as the Prince William County Clerk of the Circuit Court from 2008 until her death in February 2017.

• Michele McQuigg park will feature picnic tables, a few parking spaces, an entrance to the Occoquan Greenway — a trail linking the Town of Occoquan with the Prince William County Government Center in Woodbridge — and signage to denote the park, and to tell the story of the woman it’s named for.

The park’s naming process was contentious due to McQuigg’s position on gay marriage and her refusal to officiate same-sex-marriages at the county courthouse during her tenure as Circuit Court Clerk.

• McQuigg in 2014 opted to become a defendant in a lawsuit challenging Virginia’s ban on gay marriage on behalf of Prince William County.
• The U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear the case, and the high court made gay marriage the law of the land eight months later.
• Afterward, McQuigg ordered all marriage officiants at the courthouse to marry same-sex couples or quit, and one of about 11 officiants did.

Those who opposed naming the park for McQuigg denounced her for preventing same-same sex marriages, and those who supported the naming touted McQuigg’s years of work serving the community at soup kitchens and serving constituents in Richmond or county courthouse.

• “She was famous for putting millions of pages of court documents online for public access,” said Occoquan District Supervisor Ruth Anderson, who made the initial suggestion to name the park for McQuigg. “It’s astounding to me that she arrived at the courthouse in 2008 and found that had not been done.”

This summer, a park naming committee formed after Anderson’s naming suggestion and came up with two names: Michele McQuigg Park and Michele B. McQuigg Park (the second option included McQuigg’s middle initial).

However, the Prince William County Parks and Recreation Commission decided not to bring those recommendations to the Board of County Supervisors and convened a new naming committee.

• It suggested naming the parcel “Old Bridge Park,” as many felt a park name should identify the location of a park, as well as work to bring people together.
• “People will Google ‘McQuigg Park’ this and they’ll see the controversy,” a member of the naming committee told Supervisors. 
• “I’m not a fan of naming [parks] after folks,” said Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland. “You get a situation where you see emails that go after Michele McGuigg and try to tear her down, and what she did.”
• The second naming committee did not suggest naming the park for McQuigg.

The outgoing Board of County Supervisors Chairman At-large Corey Stewart said he sought McQiugg’s endorsement in 2006 when he ran for Occoquan District Supervisor but didn’t get it.

• He defended McQuigg’s opposition to same-sex marriage, saying the practice was against her religious beliefs, saying he was insulted by the things opponents said about her, calling it “BS.”
• “Some of these people who came out here and don’t agree with her beliefs and that’s fine,” said Stewart. “To say she was a terrible person because she had different beliefs, that’s wrong. If we don’t [name this park after McQuigg] now, no one will have the memory of her service in the future to do it.”